In an unprecedented act of blogging fanciness I decided to make a video documenting how I create the woodgrain texture (so thoroughly p...
Make these fast and fun scrap quilts with these free scrap quilt patterns. Read our best tips for creating a cohesive modern scrap quilt.
I'm teaching a Free Motion Quilting class starting in April at my LQS, Heartstrings and Heirlooms. I finished up the class sample over the weekend. In the class the students will do larger samples, but I needed a small book of designs to advertise the class. As you can see in the above end view, I used three different types of batting for my sample book - Quilter's Dream 100% Cotton, Hobbs 80/20 (80% cotton and 20% polyester), and a 100% wool. I used a tutorial from a recent Quilting Arts Magazine issue (the February/March 2014 issue) to make my little book. The instructions involved drawing some lines on a piece of fabric, then sewing on the lines with a walking foot to make a larger sheet and baste the layers together. Then you quilt your designs and cut the "pages" apart. The tutorial in the magazine was very good. If you are interested in making a book like mine, I suggest you get a copy of the magazine. Below is a collage of designs I plan to cover in the class. Along the top of each page I wrote the name of the design, the batting type and page number from the book I will be using for the class. In case you are interested, I'm using the book Free Motion Quilting with Angela Waters. It has become my go-to book for quilting ideas as of late.
When making a quilt label, is it appropriate to include the name of the person who designed the pattern? And is it necessary to contact the designer of…
A repost as promised for my Improv and Value Class students. Hope you all enjoy! Little update to this post, the design wall with the grid is a Fons and Porter Design wall. Surely none of you are like me and start another grand idea before the previous twenty are finished. Design walls are as...Read More »
Check out these quick and versatile walking foot quilting designs that even beginner quilters can master! The walking foot is a powerful attachment for your domestic sewing machine that make it possible for you to beautifully quilt your own modern quilts!
When it comes to free motion quilting, there's a few main myths that people believe about starting free motion quilting. Here's the truth!
If you've ever made a quilt, chances are you've used the straight line quilting technique. It's a popular choice mostly for smaller projects like table runners, potholders, placemats, baby quilts, etc. but can be used for big size quilts too.
When delving into the world of custom quilting there is one design element that virtually all quilters want to learn to create – feathers! The best part is, with a little practice anyone can create beautiful flowing feathers.
Christy Jr made this quilt for her daughter, Elly, and it was so much fun to make we had to share! The pattern is from Missouri Star, and is called the Disappearing Four Patch. All you need are your standard rulers, rotary cutter, iron, sewing machine, and five inch charm squares. We used Fossil Fern Quilting Squares and Cotton Supreme Optical White (but there are lots of charm square options out there!). See the photo tutorial below of how me made our quilt! The blocks are sewn together, ironed, then trimmed to nine inches. Then the block is cut into three inch pieces and the outer center pieces are rotated one position clockwise. Then the pieces are sewn back together as a whole block. A major part of the "look" for this quilt was a color gradient, so we spent a fair amount of time arranging and re-arranging the squares before settling on a final layout. Since we didn't really plan out the squares ahead of time, we ended up making a few extra blocks that helped transition colors. For example, there's a block with a yellow bottom and orange top, and another with a pink top and dark bottom. All in all, this was a blast to piece together. We added borders, and quilted with our popular West Wind at Night Edge-to-Edge. As you can see, the stars add a lot of fun and flavor to the quilt, and the swirls provide good coverage and movement! And here's the happy recipient of the quilt getting cozy before a little nap! And if you're interested in learning more about how to make this pattern, check out this fantastic YouTube tutorial made by Missouri Star Quilt Co.
Petit Design Co has done a 31 day series on quilting with a walking foot.........think it is just straight lines? NOPE - she includes curves. There are some great ideas applicable to quilting on a lon
Never make the mistake of forgetting these 4 important things to include when you gift a quilt! You'll be so glad that you did #4!!
Tying a quilt is an easy and quick way to finish a quilt. Tying a quilt means using thread or yarn to attach all three layers of a quilt together. This is a great option for beginner quilters as well as more advanced quilters! To add some extra interest, ties and quilting can be used...
Lori Kennedy wants you to get over your fear of ruining your quilt with machine quilting. She highlights six ways to ruin a quilt and follows up with ways to avoid that ruination. I think we all want to avoid...
Earlier this summer, the Happy Zombie posted a quilt-along called the Ron Swanson Along. I don’t watch much TV and haven’t seen Parks & Recreation, but I still thought her quilt was…
Are you new to machine quilting? You may have made tied quilts for a while and now want to explore machine quilting. I’ve seen a lot of advice given for how to machine quilt but I think mos…
Learning how to tie a quilt is a great way to give some hand quilted charm to your projects. Continue reading for 6 fun ways to try it out!
A blog about two modern cousins who quilt, sew, knit, stitch and craft everyday.
Straight vertical lines are the simplest of simple quilting designs. Learn how to finish your quilt with clean straight lines.
Keep your creative juices flowing with over 100 free quilt blocks rounded up in one place. Includes everything from basics, traditional and paper piecing.
Straight line quilting is fast and fantastic. Come to Bonjour Quilts for a ton of straight line quilting designs and tips you can use today.
You might also be interested in some other ways to use up your fabric scraps... If you are anything like us, you probably have loads of small scraps of fabric that you just don't know what to do with. You don't want to toss them out but they are too small to actually do anything with. That's where the crumb quilt technique comes into play. With this technique you can use up all of those small bits of fabric to make beautiful, colorful fabric that you can use to make quilts, cushion covers, applique, bags, table runners and more. Watch
Two Christmases ago hubby bought me Quilt Design Wizard from the same people who give you EQ. Now, I love this software. It's cool that you can put in prints as well as solids, and choose from blocks to set up quilts. There are many quilt blocks in the program to play with and I actually used it to come up with my plan for my Diamond Chains Quilt Along. I have even recently played around with it for setups for my Carpenter Wheels (when I finally finish them!). Well, I just found out that hubby's aunt, who already has me making two quilts for her grandbabies, wants me to make a quilt for her other daughter as well. Keri is a large animal vet in Saskatchewan so when I asked what she might want on her quilt she said, "Australian Shepherds and horses". Um, okay. I did a little researching but I'm having trouble finding fabric with Australian Shepherds on it. So I wondered about paper piecing a dog. That set me to searching for instructions because I have no idea where to even begin creating a paper piecing pattern. I found something better. A program! Have any of you heard of Quilting Assistant? I had not but came across it while looking online. It is free so I downloaded the program and started playing around with it. I will say this; read the manual! It is not difficult but I needed a little walk through to help me understand how it worked. I started with a picture of one of Keri's own dogs. I was able to change it from this... To this! I actually could have muted the colors all the way down to just basic colors instead of "picture" colors more as well. Now, I will say, it prints out all the pieces and you have to put them back together. I'm still trying to figure out if you can print it out as is. Not sure about that yet. After reading the directions I figured out that I could finally put my own block designs in this program. Remember X Marks the Spot? I was so excited because one of the reasons I never did a quilt along for this block was because I couldn't figure out how to draw it out except on graph paper. Now I can even play with the layout and design. This was my original quilt design. But after playing with the program, how cool would this one be? Or this one? Or this one? I changed the colors just to play a bit. I'm very excited about having another option for quilt planning. Just thought I'd share. Check it out!
How do you use the Fibonacci sequence in quilts? This article gives examples showing the different ways of using Fibonacci in quilting.
Using a walking foot is the easiest and quickest way to quilt borders. Continue reading for 7 easy border quilting ideas using a walking foot.
In this video I show how to do more intricate hand quilting without marking. I get really nervous about marking on my quilts. Temporary markers (like water-soluble pens) disappear quickly in the humidity here. Chalk marks disappear quickly in the time a quilt gets moved around on my sofa while I quilt it. And the idea of
Top US quilting blog, Diary of a Quilter, features an Easy Fat Quarter Quilt tutorial that takes now time to make! Click now for more details!
This is such a fun, easy quilt to make and it uses the stack n slash quilt technique to create the blocks. The quilt was made with 20 x 10' squares of fabric. You can cut 10' squares from fabric you have on hand or you can make it from a Layer Cake. You do need to make sure that you put together 4 different colored fabrics in each block. Watch the video tutorial below or scroll down for the written instructions The quilt measures 46' x 54.5'. You can make it larger just by adding more blocks. You could
From fabric selection to piecing, our Beginning Quilting Series will guide you through the process step-by-step.
A quilt back does not have to be boring. Sharing my 18 ideas for a pieced backing for quilts to make the design process a little easier.
Using a walking foot is the easiest and quickest way to quilt borders. Continue reading for 7 easy border quilting ideas using a walking foot.
In our old digs my design wall was limited to ONE. Now with the studio I have my own padded room;) I had one wall space left that I was told needed a bumper to protect the wall from ambitious pressers yielding an iron;) I also had two smaller pieces of cut insulation board that...Read More »
All the pieces for this exploding heart quilt were cut with the AccuQuilt Ohio Star die. Aurifil thread and Hobbs batting brought the quilt to life!
Modern Quilting Tips, Tricks and Tutorials! - Everything you need to know to make quilting easy and fun so you can do what it is you love to do and create a beautiful joy filled life!
Appliqué is a fun way to express yourself with fabric. Learn How to Applique Like a Pro by following these easy steps. It's easier than you think.
